RedSpark

https://rootmetrics.com/en-US/content/att-early-2020-performance-review

Although this is primarily about AT&T, there are some nuggets about where Sprint stood pre-merger.

I anticipate doing annual upgrades for the three lines of ours with iPhone 11 Pro's to the 5G iPhone when it comes out this Fall. I'm hoping that Apple doesn't increase prices any further as Samsung has done. I guess we'll see whether that upgrade is processed through Sprint's or T-Mobile's systems.

https://www.cnet.com/news/former-t-mobile-ceo-john-legere-leaves-board-weeks-earlier-than-expected/

Legere left the Board earlier than expected. Wonder what he'll do next.

Nice video! Many people are working hard to keep us connected and move the network integration process forward.

3 hours ago, BlueAngel said:

I think it's possible, already around me service is getting really flaky, and I am obviously on T-Mobile a lot more now. I was just out getting some grub and my service literally just dropped to nothing then it popped back up on T-Mobile when I was on B41 previously with a great signal. They are moving full steam ahead it seems and I am ok with that.

Oh I definitely agree it's possible. I think T-Mobile wants to wind down the Sprint brand as quickly as possible. At this point, keeping the Sprint brand/assets afloat eats into the synergies and cost savings that it wanted to realize through the merger.

8/2 comes to I think ~120 days from 4/1.... That timeframe sure fits into a Powerpoint strategy deck nicely.

We'll see if there's any corroboration of or further clarification to this...

23 minutes ago, Terrell352 said:

Holy batman!! TMOBILE tower in NY with Mmwave, N71, N41 massive mimo.

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Nice. This is what real capex looks like. Finally.

Just now, Grabber5.0 said:

I'm not particularly interested in moving down to an S20 from the V50. I wish they'd include the S20+ as an option. 😕

Is there an option to do a "differential upgrade" to the S20+ and cover the incremental cost over the base S20?

Dish named the first vendor for its 5G build: https://www.fiercewireless.com/5g/dish-network-names-mavenir-as-first-vendor-for-its-5g-network-build

Think they'll be able to do it?

49 minutes ago, Trip said:

 

I am about 99.9% sure it did not.  Most of the underground B41 is from Mini Macros, at least according to the GCI pattern.  There are a handful of locations where they appeared to be 8T8Rs.  None of them on my commute, at least, were in the Massive MIMO part of the GCI pattern.

- Trip

When do you think T-Mobile will address the Sprint spectrum on the network?

Was this underground coverage system even designed with 5G upgradability in mind?

I'm curious what their original schedule was....

4 minutes ago, BlueAngel said:

Damn T-Mobile really isn't wasting any time VoLTE!

The length of time that it actually took for the merger may be a reason that things are moving so quickly.

https://www.fiercewireless.com/operators/t-mobile-launches-2-5-ghz-philadelphia-tees-up-nyc-for-entire-layer-cake

Quote

T-Mobile executives on more than one occasion have said the length of time it took to get the deal done – about two years – actually worked in their favor in the sense that they could lay a lot of the groundwork for when the 2.5 GHz became available to the combined entity.  

Perhaps this is applicable to VoLTE going live as well.

1 hour ago, dewbertdc said:

Yeah, congestion on T-Mobile can be really bad during the day downtown and in areas where there has been a lot of growth (think NoMA and H Street NE) but no corresponding upgrade in capacity.  I wonder if T-Mobile had been waiting to densify until after the merger completed.  There are spots where T-Mo has really done a good job upgrading, like the Shaw-U Street corridor, where I can easily pull 50-100Mbps even when it's crowded.

 

DC has certainly grown, and Sprint's network wasn't keeping up in a number of areas across the City. Some of this was probably due to limited capex, but I think it was also further limited because Sprint was waiting on the merger as well.

24 minutes ago, dewbertdc said:

I've left Sprint and have a T-Mobile account now, their 3rd Line free and Discount Match promotions from the summer were too good of a deal to pass up for my family... $168 for three Magenta Plus lines, two iPads and Premium Netflix... congestion on T-Mobile is a real problem in the city though.  I'm hopeful they get network integration in DC done quickly to help alleviate some of that.

Anyway, hopefully much of the LTE integration for WMATA can be done remotely... not sure if Sprint 5G ever made it down into the tunnels.  I don't think T-Mobile's did. Not sure what "CWS" stands for... 

That sure is a good deal for all that stuff. We're on Unlimited Freedom with Sprint.

I had no idea that T-Mobile was congested here. Sprint has congestion issues in certain spots, and it's clear that's where the capex ran out because they have great performance in areas you'd expect to see congestion. I imagine network integration with Sprint won't be long from now.

I don't have a 5G device so I can't tell if 5G made it down there. Knowing WMATA, I'm not sure it did. However, I imagine T-Mobile/Verizon/AT&T would want to upgrade it to 5G at some point.

Just now, nexgencpu said:

VoLTE seems to be live while roaming on T-mobile. 

They're not wasting any time here. Wow.

6 minutes ago, dewbertdc said:

Oh man, that project was such a mess (as with all things WMATA).  The project was approved in 2009 with a projected end date of 2012.  Metro was required by Congress to provide underground cellular service in order to access a bunch of federal funding.  It's a neutral host system built by a consortium of the big 4 carriers. Most stations have large brown cabinets labeled "CWS" tucked into a corner that house the equipment.

Before all the COVID-19 mess, I commuted daily to Union Station on Metro.  Recently, T-Mobile service on the platform was very congested during rush hour, to the point where I couldn't order a coffee in the Starbucks app until I got up to the surface. I recall when I was on Sprint that Network Signal Info identified service in underground stations and tunnels as a B41 Mini-Macro site.  

Haha. Yup. It wouldn't be WMATA if it wasn't some kind of mess. I've lived through this history here as well, but at least they're now going to finally finish it. Perhaps with all the metro service cutbacks they've been able to do additional work on it.

I've never noticed the brown cabinets before, but I'll look for them next time I ride. What does "CWS" stand for?

I've had a good experience with the Sprint service in the stations in the past. So the Sprint devices are now roaming on T-Mobile in the stations? That must have been because you didn't have Sprint coverage for some reason.

Would technicians simply have to make configuration changes to the neutral host cabinets/backend to combine the T-Mobile/Sprint network bands onto the New T-Mobile network?

13 minutes ago, runagun said:

TMobile is so kind they're giving me a free Samsung s20 5g on lease. I assume cause I have a LGV50 5g they're going to shut down the 5g part as soon as they can.  

CNET has a great article which summarizes the device offers for those with "legacy" Sprint 5G devices and its plan to shutdown the nine existing Sprint 5G markets and refarm/redeploy the spectrum on T-Mobile: https://www.cnet.com/news/t-mobile-to-redeploy-sprints-midband-5g-spectrum-in-new-york-in-may/

Quote

 

T-Mobile says it's planning to alert people who bought Sprint 5G phones about the need for new devices. It will have a number of offers to encourage these owners to upgrade to a Galaxy S20, with the offer varying slightly depending on how much they're paying per month. 

• Those who currently own, lease or make payments on a 7 Pro 5G (256GB), S10 5G (256GB), V50 ThinQ (128GB) and are paying less than $10/mo. will get a Samsung Galaxy S20 5G for $0/mo. after $41.67/mo. credit with a new 18-month lease.
• Those who currently lease or make payments on a 7 Pro 5G (256GB), S10 5G (256GB), V50 ThinQ (128GB) and are paying more than $10/mo. will get a Samsung Galaxy S20 5G for $10/mo. after $31.67/mo. credit with a new 18-month lease.
• Those who purchased an HTC 5G Hub on an installment plan will get a credit of $12.50/mo. for the remainder of the term. If they purchased the hotspot outright, T-Mobile will give them a one-time credit of $300 applied to their bill.

 

35 minutes ago, dewbertdc said:

Right, sorry, I was agreeing with you but also trying to make the point (ineffectively!) that they can limit the bands and towers that they're using MOCN on only to those that are broadcasting the LTE anchor bands for 5G, rather than wholesale for the whole LTE network.  T-Mobile described this granular method of integrating their networks in their merger filings, which are unfortunately no longer up on newtmobile.com.  Anyway, I guess we'll find out in a few days!

I'm a T-Mobile customer now, and wish they'd also do the opposite for Sprint "keep sites" sooner than later.  I'm very satisfied with T-Mobile service generally, but there are several buildings with indoor DASes in the DC area that have Sprint but not T-Mobile... I am assuming T-Mobile would want to fold those into their network.

 

I imagine every Sprint asset/network is getting a review as for how it can fold into the T-Mobile network.

I'm also curious what will happen with the network build in the Washington Metro that's being supported by all four carriers. I'm not sure if the carriers were each installing equipment specific to their network, or if it was neutral host/shared equipment.

https://www.wmata.com/about/news/Wireless-service-now-available-in-all-Green-line-tunnels.cfm (December 6, 2019)

The last update before that was in May 2019: https://www.wmata.com/about/news/Metro-wireless-service-available-in-two-thirds-of-tunnels.cfm

Perhaps we'll have an update on their progress next month.

If it is separate equipment for T-Mobile/Sprint, I wonder how that will be integrated and consolidated for the New T-Mobile? How would that work?

Although it's heavily redacted, you can get a sense what's going on...

31 minutes ago, Tengen31 said:

Competition can't buy out everyone

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True. But it can if the competition is no longer sustainable.

11 minutes ago, swintec said:

Do you live in a USCC market?  They are very good where they service.  Here in northern new england they cover much of the state in places that others only wished they did (and just roam on USCC instead).  I cant really speak for their other markets though but I like to think they do just as good of a job.

The merger, at least for Maine really did not do much (yet).  At the end of the day, it was two poor coverage carriers getting together where their coverage was almost the same across the state anyways.  I will give tmobile the benefit of the doubt and believe them when they say they will expand in the coming years but USCC is king here.

No I don't. The reason I make this point is that the combined entities/networks of T-Mobile/Sprint provides huge economies of scale and synergy efficiencies to compete agains regional carriers like U.S. Cellular. T-Mobile's 600 MHz spectrum combined with Sprints 2.5 GHz, plus the new cost advantages of building it out won't leave much room for regional carriers to compete in my opinion as the new combined network expands across the nation. Aside from whether or not that's a good thing, I believe it could happen.

5 minutes ago, Tengen31 said:

Uscc isn't willing to sell

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....yet.

I just don't see a place in the market for U.S. Cellular going forward. Maybe there's something I'm missing here, but I just don't see it.

7 minutes ago, gr8nuguy said:

I like that big black hole which is Nebraska lol

U.S. Cellular to the rescue? 😎

https://www.uscellular.com/coverage-map

Maybe they're willing to sell....

See this newly updated landing page: https://www.sprint.com/en/landings/nationwide5g.html

Instructions on how to update your S20 5G devices as well as FAQ's.

8 minutes ago, derrph said:

So now the question is, for those with older “5G” that gets this device offer will need to switch over to a T-Mobile plan.


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The Merger "promise" was that you could keep your Sprint plan/pricing for 3 years. (5 years in the case of CA I believe), so I don't think you'll need to yet.

I think the article is referring to T-Mobile as speaking on behalf of Sprint. These offers will likely come from T-Mobile through Sprint, via an email from Mike Sievert (Just like that "Welcome" email he sent out recently over Sprint's email system.) Just my theory on it.